Backround of My Life (1874 - 1963)

My name is Robert Lee Frost and I was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874. My parents are William Prescott Frost Jr. and Isabelle Moodie. My parents named me after a very famous man by the name of Robert E. Lee, who was the Confederate General during the time of the Civil War. My father was a teacher and a journalist along with my mother who was also a teacher. I am the oldest of 2 children and my sister's name is Jeanie Florence. Because both of my parents were teachers, I was exposed to the world of books and reading, studying the works of William Shakespeare and poets Robert Burns, and William Wordsworth.

Early Childhood

In 1876, when I was 3 years old, I traveled with my mom to go visit my grandparents in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When my mom and I left from San Francisco, my mom was pregnant at the time with my sister. We were leaving San Francisco because my dad was constantly gambling and drinking and my mom didn't want me to be in that kind of environment. While in Lawrence, Massachusetts, my mom gave birth to my sister Jeanie Florence, on June 25, 1876. We returned to San Francisco later in the fall that year and my father was diagnosed as a consumptive alcoholic drinker. My father was still not setting a good example to me and his health began to deteriorate. In 1879, I began to attend kindergarten but I did not last there for more than a day. In 1880, my father was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, along with me starting 1st grade but dropping out a few days in. In 1881, I started to attend 2nd grade. Also in this year I was baptized in my mother's Sweden-borgian church. In 1882, I dropped out of school and began to be home schooled. A few years went by and on May 5, 1885 my father died from tuberculosis. After my mom paid for the funeral and the rest of the expenses, we were left with very little money and had to move to Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with my grandparents. We stayed there for a year and then moved to Salem Depot, New Hampshire in 1886 where both my sister and I entered 5th grade. That same year, my mom began to start teaching. In 1888, I passed the entrance exams for Lawrence High School and my mother resigned from teaching in the Salem Depot district school. I finished at the top of my class in 1889 and in 1890 I had my first published poem in the Lawrence High School Bulletin. In 1891, I passed the preliminary exam for Harvard College and  became the chief editor of the school bulletin and fell in love with a student who attended the school and her name was Elinor Miriam White.

Life, Family, and Career

In 1892, I became engaged to Elinor Miriam White. It was time to attend college and I did not have that much money to attend Harvard, so my grandparents gave me some money so that I would be able to attend Dartmouth College. By the end of December that year, I got bored of Dartmouth and decided to leave. After leaving Dartmouth, I decided to go home and teach and do other various jobs. In 1894, I sold my first poem entitled "My Butterfly" which is an elegy, to the New York magazine, The Independent for 15$. It finally came time to marry Elinor Miriam White and on December 19, 1895 it was official. We got married in Lawrence, Massachusetts by a Sweden-borgian pastor. It was a little while before we had our first child but on September 25, 1896 our son Elliott was born. In 1897, I passed the entrance exam for Harvard, and went to my grandfather for some money and was admitted as a freshman that year. I withdrew from Harvard on March 31, 1899. That was the year that my second child was born. This time my wife and I had a girl and named her Lesly. Her birthday was April 28, 1899. Later on in the year I insisted my mother to visit a doctor and that is when we found out that she had an advanced stage of cancer. In 1900, my firstborn died from cholera on July 8th. That was not the only hard thing that we experienced that year.  My wife became very depressed and my health started to deteriorate along with the passing of my mom on November the 2nd. My mom was buried in Lawrence, Massachusetts. My grandfather died on July 10, 1901 and gave me a 500$ annuity and the use of the Derry farm for 10 years. After the 10 years, the annuity would increase to 800$ and I would own the farm. In 1902, my second son and third child Carol was born on May the 27th. The following year my second daughter and forth child was born. Her name was Irma and she was born on June the 27th. Two years later in 1905, my third daughter Majorie was born on March the 28th. My family moved to Derry, New Hampshire and I became a full time teacher at Pinkerton Academy. Two years later, my forth and final daughter and child was born. Her name was Elinor Bettina and her birthday was June 18, 1907. Unfortunately Elinor Bettina didn't live for more than 3 days and died on June the 21st. While in Derry I wrote a lot of poems that dealt with many different things. In 1912, we sold the Derry farm and moved to a city outside of London called Beaconsfield. Within a short time moving to England, I because acquainted with some people. These people were David Nutt, F.S.Flint, Ezra Pound, Wilfred Gibson, Lascelles Abercrombie,  Edward Thomas, Hilda Doolittle, Form Herman Hueffer, Ernest Rhys, and William Butler Yeats. My poetry career went off from there. My poems were spread all across the area from all the different newspaper and other tabloids. My family and I moved back into the United States in 1915 because of England's involvement in World War I. Once I moved back to the United States my poetry began to gain an excessive amount of attention and awards were being awarde to me for a lot of my poetry.

Significant Achievements and Works of Poetry

• 4 Pulitzer Prizes for poetry

           1. 1924 for New Hampshire
           2. 1931 for Collected Poems
           3. 1937 for A Further Range
           4. 1943 for A Witness Tree

• 1939- Gold Medal by The National Institute of Arts and Literature 
• 1953- Awarded The Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets
• 1960- Congress awarded Frost a gold medal in recognition of his poetry
• 1961- Speaks at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy
• 1963- Awarded The Bollingen Prize for Poetry  

Poems

• Out,Out
• The Gift Outright
• Acquainted with the Night
• After Apple Picking 
• Birches
• Dust of Snow
• Fire and Ice
• Fireflies in the Garden
• For once, the Something
• Good-bye, and Keep Cold
• Home Burial
• Love and a Question
• Mending Wall
• Mowing
• October
• Range-finding
• Reluctance
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Death of the Hired Man
• The Oven Bird
• The Pasture
• The Road Not Taken
• The Sound of Trees
• The Star-splitter
• The Turf of Flowers 
• The Wood-Pile
• To E.T.

World Changer

A world changer is someone who impacts and influences a group of people either for good or bad. I truly believe that I am a world changer that influenced and impacted people for the good. With all the achievements and honorary degrees that I was I given, I believe that people had a respect for both myself and my works of poetry and looked up to me as a positive influence. I believe that I received the ability to positively influence and impact people because of who I was involved with while doing all of my works. When you surround yourself with people that exemplify the epitome of someone who has the characteristics to impact and influence other people, their actions and ideas are going to rub off on you and change you for the best. The reason I think that I gained the experience needed to become a positive influence and impact other peoples lives from the people that I worked with is because I did not get the positive influence that I truly needed from my father who was addicted to alcohol and gambling. All heroes need to have some person that influenced and impacted their life in order to find out what characteristics are needed to influence and impact others. So rapping up, I believe that it was truly my works of poetry that changed the lives of many and I hope that their world was changed from the time and effort that I put into my works and the things that I did for other people. 

Pictures

Personal pictures

Robert Frost at John F.Kennedy inauguration

 Robert Frost and his wife Elinor

              

Robert Frost

                     

                       Introduced to the works of as a boy

William Shakespeare

William Wordsworth

Robert Burns

Bibliography

Ketzle, Jeff. "Robert Frost Biographical Information." Ketzle, Oct.1995.
  http://www.ketzle.com/frost/frostbio.htm. 20 Nov.2010

Merriman, C.D. "Robert Frost." Jalic Inc, 2006.
  http://www.online-literatue.com/frost/. 20 Nov.2010.

Pritchard, William H. "Frost's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry.
  American National Biography Online, Feb.2000.
  http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/life.htm.
  20 Nov.2010.

"Robert Frost." Poetry Foundation, 2010.
  http://www.poetryfoundations.org/bio/robert-frost. 20 Nov. 2010.

"Robert Frost." Poets. Academy of American Poets, 1997-2010.
  http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192. 20 Nov.2010.